Two vigils held to mark the 32nd anniversary of the H-Blocks Hunger Strikes were held in New Ross town last week. Good crowds gathered on the fantastic new quay front and by the 1798 memorial in Irishtown on the anniversary of Martin Hurson, the sixth republican prisoner to die during the 1981 hunger strike.

Quayside, New Ross

It seems in Irish politics today there are very few people who actually have genuine ideals or the courage of their convictions.
It has become more common for politicians to view their job as being a career instead of a vocation. It’s no wonder that the electorate has become disillusioned with politics.
Martin Hurson was a man who had the courage of his convictions. He valued his ideals enough to die for them. That’s a severe. undertaking for any person but when you consider that Martin Hurson was just twenty four years old when he died on hunger strike, you realise that it was incredible.

Quayside, New Ross

We are lucky enough to live in a post Good Friday Agreement Ireland and I truly hope that the sacrifices that have been made in the past will never have to be undertaken by another generation. Republicans still have their convictions. We still have our ideals and we still have a duty to shun the gombeen system and give the electorate a real alternative.